Law forcing Jews to obtain permits for kosher meat proposed by Austrian politician

Both Jewish kosher and Islamic halal rituals require the butcher to swiftly slaughter the animal by slitting its throat and draining its blood ( Getty )

A plan to force Jews to obtain permits in order to buy kosher meat has been proposed by a local government department in Austria.

The draft decree in Lower Austria, one of nine states that makes up the central European country, would effectively ban kosher sales other than to Jews who could prove they regularly ate the ritually slaughtered meat.

It was put forward by the state’s department of animal welfare, which is headed by Gottfried Waldhäusl, a local cabinet minister from the populist Freedom Party – a political party launched by ex-Nazis in the 1950s.